Notebook

Penned by Jared Flood

Hello and welcome! I'm a knitter, photographer, designer and the creative director at Brooklyn Tweed. I use this notebook as a space to record inspiration and write about my creative work both inside and outside of BT. Thanks for reading, and don't be a stranger—I love hearing from you!

Full Power

March 08, 2010

After days and days of honest (and sometimes tortured) sorting, I feel like I’ve been through a gauntlet and come out on the other side amazed at what was lurking in the depths. When you commit to giving your stash a deep-cleaning you expect to feel organized afterwards… but what I wasn’t expecting was how inspired my own stash has made me. Assessing the whole scope of it caused me to start making connections between yarns that have probably never even been in the same room with one another.

Aside from being organized, I’m now living amongst a beautiful palette of wools that has my head spinning with ideas.

I was lucky enough to be able to find grateful hands for all the yarns that were jettisoned, which is probably the reason for the sense of lightness that I now feel, and ended up donating a small amount of yarn to a local charity. All that remains are yarns that I’m absolutely itching to work with – oh what a feeling!

The crown jewel of them all: I rounded up all my Shetland yarns and put them together in color groups (shown above) — what a thing of beauty! I couldn’t resist taking photo after photo of these amazing colors all lined up together. A kid in a candy store comes to mind.

one of my goals this summer is to turn all the non-wool in my stash (and i fear there is quite a bit!) into donatable projects, so that i can turn my knitting space into a wool-friendlier zone like this!

Heard you had a great weekend at my former employer, Nine Rubies Knitting. Sorry I couldn't take a class (busy, busy weekend), but it sounds like it was a blast for the students. Hope you enjoyed it :-).

I absolute love your stash pictures. Much, much better than a box of chocolates!They are more like a Dean&Deluca's basket of gourmet ingredients, begging to become something unforgettable.Thanks for the gift of sharing them!

As a painter I love the colors and it inspires new landscapes (which I only do in the summer). As a knitter my hands itch to put these yarns on my needle, look for a pattern and just start!How can you be tired??(just kidding -you must have a really big stash!)

Drool-worthy colour combinations! I just want to frame the bottom photo and hang it on my wall.

(@Sue: Yes, you can see something like this at the shop, but this is stash voyeurism at its best! These photos represent time lovingly spent choosing, organizing, touching, and dreaming of what's to come!)

Ok, I thought I had a big stash, I feel better now. 😉 Beautiful in colour coordination, I always have trouble braking into an untouched skein, but how els would they become any thing other than potential.

I know exactly how you feel. I now have a whole wall of Spindrift in a riot of colours that has my head spinning with ideas. Of course, my excuse was that I de-stashed to make room for an online knitting store. I, too, found lots of good friends who took in my orphans and gave them a better home. Even the stuff I wanted to send to charity got snapped up and will be distributed to 'people who will really appreciate it', so I'm told. It is good to have friends like that in your life.

These photos make my greedy fingers tingle! You have a beautiful stash! I'm jealous!! I hope you get to enjoy this time of inspiration!! I can't wait to see what you come up with to make out of these beautiful little gems.

I love all the colors in yourstash! I love that the yarn is allwool and Shetland wool is even muchbetter. Now, Jared, it has beenway way way too long since we havehad one of your beautiful knittinggarments to keep us inspired!

those colors all do look really amazing together!after reading your earlier post about your stash, i went through mine too. and sorted out of the yarn that i accepted in trades, just to be nice, but i will never use. so now i am debating what to do with them. suggestions people??

I agree with hibou. I would love to have a framed copy of that bottom picture to hang on my living room wall. If you ever want to make that available, please do let us know.Congratulations on the stash clean-out and new inspirations!

My stash is stored in two huge bookcases with glass doors. I keep it displayed very nicely and it is very inspiring to me. A thing of beauty every time I go into my studio! My husband got me the shelves for Yule one year in the hopes that I'd shop my stash and buy less yarn. I can't say that's worked out for him yet.

That is an amazing array of beautiful colors of Shetland yarns. I am slowly trying to pull away from the call of Shetland Fair Isle knitting. Not winning at all. Can't wait to see what you do with them.

A pro like yourself deserves an amazing stash of yarn! I too have recently moved and reorganized my stash into cubbies. I seriously love just looking at it! Luckily, my husband, who has an art degree but absolutely no real understanding of my "string", also likes my display. (:

I'm moving the coming week, and after reading your post I'm not dreading the packing and sorting as much any longer, and almost looking forward to the part involving my quite substantial stash. Although teleporting still seems like the best option.

Hi there. Your pictures are inspiring! Makes me want to run home and re-organize ALL of my yarn. I looked and looked and didn't see any mention of where you buy your Shetland yarn. Is there a favorite place you get the yarn from? I'd love to get some.